[Video] As summer comes to an end, check out the top three stories from this week | 2017-09-22

This week marked the final week of summer, with Friday being the official first day of autumn. But, before the housing finance industry heads into the fall home-buying season, check out this video below to see the top three stories that wrapped up the final week of summer.

Settlement and lawsuit stories captured the attention of the majority of HousingWire’s readers this week, with the Federal Reserve announcement sneaking its way into the top three stories as well.

Feel free to watch and share the video above for a highlight reel of the top three stories.

And if you missed checking out the stories when they were first published, or if you simply want to read them again, check out the links below.

1. Allied Home Mortgage ordered to pay $296 million for widespread FHA fraud

Nearly six years ago, the government sued Allied Home Mortgage for $834 million, claiming the company engaged in repeated fraud against the FHA over a 10-year period. Last year, a federal jury unanimously found Allied Home Mortgage liable for civil mortgage fraud and awarded the United States nearly $93 million. But the case wasn’t done yet, and as it turns out, Allied Home Mortgage and its CEO will have to pay much, much more than first thought.

2. Here’s what quantitative un-easing could mean for the housing market

The Federal Reserve announced it will begin the normalization of its balance sheet starting in October with a max of $4 billion mortgage-backed securities per month. But what does this mean for the housing industry? For interest rates? Experts provide the answers.

Ocwen Loan Servicing, a subsidiary of Ocwen Financial, reached a $17.5 million settlement that covers a pair of lawsuits that accused Ocwen of calling consumers’ cellphones without their consent, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The settlement was first reported by Law360, which stated that the putative class includes more than 1.6 million consumers.